DAVID GOODIS – Somebody’s Done For. Banner B60-111, paperback original, 1967. Reprinted several times, including Stark House Press, softcover, 2023.

   Jander’s an ad man. For fun, he takes a dingy out the New Jersey coast.

   Only it capsizes. And he just about drowns.

   Ends up on some forgotten stretch of beach.

   And a girl. A strange and beautiful creature, pulls him up the shore, to save him from drowning in the tide.

   She takes him to a shack, warms him and feeds him.

   But don’t follow me and don’t ask questions.

   But he can’t help it. Like Orpheus descending.

   So he finds out where she’s from. And where she’s going.

   Thing is, her daddy is an escaped convict. Who lives in an abandoned house, with a couple of buddies from the clink. And his wife.

   And daddy’s crazy as a moon. I would say loon, but it’s overused. So moon. Crazy as a moon. And gun crazy.

   And Vera, the daughter. She brings home the bread. (Almost said bacon. All we’re missing is a tomato and some lettuce.) She’s the featured attraction at a gentleman’s club. Only she ain’t available. Which doubles her attraction. She’s belongs to one man and one man alone.

   Her daddy.

   Odd little book. And Goodis’s last.

   As unfulfilling as life itself.

DASHIELL HAMMETT “Tulip.” Fragment of an unfinished novel, written perhaps in the early 1950s. First appeared in The Big Nightmare (Random House, 1966).

   The beginning, and last paragraphs of what might have been an autobiography of sorts, in which Tulip visits Pop, and the two of them have an unintelligible conversation. [Not rated.]

DANIEL BOYD – Hamlet Among the Pirates. Montag Press, softcover, August 2024.

   The book’s been out a while, but I’ve been in a long-lasting reading slump the past few months, and instead of having you wait for me to read it and tell you to buy it, I think it best if I for now just skip the middle step and tell you to buy it.

   Why? Maybe you already know this, but Daniel Boyd is actually our good friend and ace book and movie reviewer Dan Stumpf. He also leaves good comments here as well.

   Here below is Amazon’s cover image the book, should you care to buy it there, and after that a description of sorts of the story itself. (You can also click on the cover, follow the arrows, and (if all goes well) all kinds of wonderful things will (might) happen.)

         HAMLET ON THE HIGH SEAS!

When Captain Jacobus Hooke, Master of the
Dread Pirate Frigate DEBACLE, meets up with Hamlet,
Prince of Denmark, the action never stops.
Get ready for laughter and excitement, as a hard-working
Pirate Captain accidentally kidnaps the Melancholy Dane and finds
himself saddled with a princely hostage no one wants to ransom!

      Swordfights
      Strumpets
      Sea Battles
      Literary Allusions
      Surprise Encounters
      Super Storms
      And Just Plain Silliness

   Whether you know Shakespeare and HAMLET, or you just enjoy a good adventure story, this one will keep you turning the pages. Inspired by one brief reference to pirates in the play, Daniel Boyd creates a high seas adventure like no other.

STRANGE FASCINATION. Columbia Pictures, 1952. Cleo Moore, Hugo Haas, Mona Barrie, Rick Vallin, Karen Sharpe . Written, directed and produced by Hugo Haas.

   This one really isn’t noir, but it’s got noir-ish features, I guess in the sense that it has an impending sense of doom, a femme fatale (to some degree), and a portrait of a man on a downward spiral.

   The fatalistic plot follows Central European concert pianist Paul Marvan (Hugo Haas) as he makes his way to America, falls madly in love with a nightclub dancer half his age (Cleo Moore), and then proceeds to make bad decision after bad decision, ultimately ruining both his marriage and his professional life. It’s a decent enough work to be sure, but the plot is a little too simple for its own good.

   A lower budget auteurist work if there ever was one, Strange Fascination has Czech-Jewish filmmaker Hugo Haas’s imprint all over it. Not only does he star in this moody drama film, he wrote, directed, and produced it. So it’s safe to say that everything in the film is his work and his alone.

   To his credit, his portrayal of Paul Marvan is spot-on; Haas disappears completely into the role and imbues it with energy. He’s compulsively watchable. But otherwise, Strange Fascination is a somewhat languid affair, never quite able to deliver the punches it so desperately needs.
   

DASHIELL HAMMETT “Corkscrew.” First published in The Black Mask, September 1925. Collected in The Big Nightmare (Random House, 1966).

   A new deputy sheriff comes to a small town in the Arizona desert, His job is to clear out troublemakers for an irrigation company, but the story means more [than that even] before the anonymous deputy is discovered to be the Continental Op – simply by reflecting attitudes of the real West. (4)

RAOUL WHITFIELD – Border Brand. Steeger Books, softcover, August 2024. Originally serialized in Black Mask magazine, June through November 1928.

   Mac ’twas a fighter pilot in the war to end all wars. Then was a teller in a bank.

   Antonio Flores robbed the bank. And flew away with the cash in a single seater.

   Mac was the teller Flores held up.

   The bank fires Mac. Figure Mac didn’t try hard enough to stop Flores. Figure Mac was maybe in on it.

   So Mac decides to chase after Flores. Across the border to Mexico.

   There he teams up with a federal agent, name of Ben Breed.

   Breed is hell of a pilot too. And a gunner. As well as Mac and Flores. And air battles are the main action here.

   Whitfield does a nice job with the air battle descriptions, keeping me engaged though I’ve myself never been one to seek out air adventure. The other reason to read it is Whitfield’s prose. I think Whitfield maybe has the hardest, most staccato prose in showbiz. And that’s why I keep reading Whitfield and keep seeking him out. He’s a tonic. He’s spare. He’s terse. There’s no wasted word. Concision. Diamond cut. We can still learn a lot from Whitfield about how to say things briskly sans the bullshit.

   I liked it.

   I want to let everyone know that my first novel, The Nuremberg Papers (Stark House Press) is now available on Amazon. When writing the book, I drew inspiration from various genres and subgenres in both literature and cinema, including classic detective fiction, stories about Nazi war criminals, film noir, suspense thrillers from the 1970s such as The Parallax View and Marathon Man, and movies and television shows set in gritty 1980s New York City.

   Aside from the conspiracy thriller aspect of the work, there’s also a story about Jewish identity in postwar America that runs throughout the course of the novel. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. And if you happen to appreciate the book, positive feedback on Amazon is more than welcome!

THE SCREAMING SKULL. ABC, 14 February 1973. Telecast as part of a five entry late night series entitled The Classic Ghosts. Vincent Gardenia, Carrie Nye, David McCallum. Based on a story by F. Marion Crawford. Directed by
Gloria Monty.

   I have to admit. For the first ten minutes or so, I was afraid that The Screaming Skull was going to be a stodgy, lifeless affair that merely plodded along. How wrong I was! Although it starts off slow and is exceedingly low-tech (it was filmed on video), this made-for-TV movie defies expectations and provides an hour plus of solid, extremely watchable supernatural entertainment.

   An adaptation of F. Marion Crawford’s eponymous short story (1908), this comparatively unknown horror movie features David McCallum as Luke Pratt, physician with an interest in research.

   Estranged from his wife (Carrie Nye) after the death of her son, Pratt finds solace in alcohol. All that changes when the doctor’s brother, Ollie (Vincent Gardenia) shows up and plants a diabolical idea in his head. It doesn’t take long for Luke to come up with what he thinks will be a foolproof plan to kill his wife. It’s after his wife’s murder that spooky things start happening, first to Luke and then to his brother.

   Filmed with a decidedly Gothic sensibility, The Screaming Skull relies as much on atmosphere as anything else to tell its story. The music, in particular, helps with the mood. Although it must be said that it’s a little overwrought at times. As I mentioned earlier, this movie was filmed entirely on video, which gives it a unique flavor. But unique doesn’t mean bad and low-tech doesn’t mean low quality. It’s not a must-see, but it’s quality work. Recommended for fans of ghost stories in particular.

DASHIELL HAMMETT “The Scorched Face,” First appeared in The Black Mask, May 1925. Collected in The Big Nightmare (Random House, 1966).

   Two daughters disappear this time. (What is the younger generation coming to?) The Continental Op discovers the den of vice, pornography and blackmail they have fallen into. His restraint in persuading Pat Reddy to suppress evidence is admirable. (5)

DAN CURTIS’ DRACULA. CBS, 1974. Jack Palance, Simon Ward. Nigel Davenport, Pamela Brown, Fiona Lewis, Penelope Horner/ Murray Brown. ScreenplayL Richard Matheson, based on the novel by Bram Stoker. Director: Dan Curtis.

   Dan Curtis’ Dracula, while steeped in a foreboding Gothic atmosphere, lacks the bite that a vampire movie should have. Filmed as a faithful adaptation of Bram Stoker’s horror novel, the movie stars Jack Palance as the titular villain. Palance rages and sneers throughout the proceedings, each time making him a little less supernatural than a fearsome vampire should really be. That isn’t to say that he doesn’t put on a good performance. Rather, it’s that Richard Matheson’s screenplay is – to be perfectly blunt – somewhat dull and muted.

   Another problem with this made-for-television adaptation is that it’s all plot and no story. After watching it, I can’t seem to recall any moment in the entire film where the audience is asked to identify in any meaningful way with the characters who get caught up in Dracula’s web. Everything seems to be held at an emotional distance. There’s a lack of energy that’s hard to describe, but easy to feel. Case in point: Dr. Van Helsing, as portrayed by Nigel Davenport, is rather lackluster. Surely the famed vampire killer should have some passion?

   There are, however, two very important plusses that the movie does have. First, the set design and lighting were exquisite. Second, the score by Robert Cobert fits perfectly with the aforementioned Gothic atmosphere. But these aren’t enough to make me recommend this Dracula adaptation over either the original with Bela Lugosi or the Francis Ford Coppola-helmed one in which Anthony Hopkins portrays Van Helsing.